This invention relates to a shift lever apparatus which is a shift-by-wire type to convert a shift position of a shift lever to an electric signal, to transmit the electric signal to a transmission to set a gear position based on the electric signal.
A patent document 1 (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0108480 A1 corresponding to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-115944) and a patent document 2 (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-132932) disclose conventional shift lever apparatuses. In the shift lever apparatus of the patent document 1, when a shift lever 200 is moved from a reference position on a right side, through an N-position 206 on a left side, to a D-position 208 on a front side of a vehicle or an R-position 204 on a rear side of the vehicle, the shift lever 200 is returned through the N-position 206 to the reference position after the operation, as shown in FIG. 3 of the patent document 1. For attaining this movement of the shift lever 200, a shift rotational shaft 24 is rotatably provided to a base bracket 2, as shown in FIG. 1 of the patent document 2. A shift lever 3 is provided through a select rotational shaft 25 to the shift rotational shaft 24. Consequently, the structure of the shift lever apparatus is complicated. The size of the shift lever apparatus in the leftward and rightward direction increases.
On the other hand, in the shift lever apparatus of the patent document 1, the shift lever is not pivoted in the leftward and rightward directions of the vehicle, and the shift lever is pivoted only in the forward and rearward directions, as shown in FIG. 12. Therefore, an I-shaped passage 262 extends in the forward and rearward directions. A reference position is provided at a neutral position (central position) of the passage 262. An R-position is provided on the front side of the reference position. An N1-position is provided between the R-position and the reference position. A D-position is provided on the rear side of the reference position. An N2-position is provided between the D-position and the reference position.